Suddenly Spring

Kathy Hudson

On Thursday, my iPad said the temperature was 75. Daffodils and crocuses all over Baltimore bloomed. Ditto Okame cherry trees. The buds on Yoshinos cherry trees swelled, but they did not open to create the pink ballerina tutus that make Yoshinos famous.

That is a good thing. The current warm-up continued a warmer than usual winter. Much warmer than usual. So warm that for the first time since I started using Dracaena plants at the center of my summer annual containers, they did not die back in winter. Same with the annual dusty miller, which seems to have continued to grow all winter.

I am glad the forecast is for cooler temperatures this weekend. They will refrigerate the blooms and keep them fresh, hopefully until I have a chance to rake up the leaves around them that blew in this “winter.”

Dried, brown foliage is not the best backdrop for the exuberance of spring daffodils.